Children traveling in a motor vehicle are particularly vulnerable to injury from impact forces when the vehicle stops rapidly. Efforts have been made to develop child safety seats that reduce the effect of these forces on the child. Infants are required to ride in a rear-facing child safety seat to allow impact forces on the child's body to be absorbed by the padding of the child seat.
An older, more robust, child may ride in a front-facing seat. In a front-facing seat, typically a multiple-point harness secures the child into the seat. Although the child may be retained in the seat upon vehicle impact, the straps themselves can cause injury by digging into the child. In addition certain parts of the child's body, such as the child's head and neck, are not secured by straps and may be exposed to whiplash forces.
It is therefore desirable to reduce the impact forces that are transferred to a child's body when the vehicle stops rapidly.